Nursing: In terms of personal satisfaction, even money has become a poor motivator :(

[CaffeinePOQ4HPRN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN]

Lackluster career prospects. I DO NOT like gerontology. I'm tired. The endless enemas, the endless urine and feces everywhere (oftentimes thrown at you), the endless changing of adult diapers (excuse me, incontinence briefs) often being utilized by grossly overweight elderly patients, elderly racist patients, overweight patients, overweight incontinent patients, overweight non-ambulatory patients, dementia, dementia related violence/attacks, overweight non-ambulatory psych-dementia patients... Most of all, I LOATHE being understaffed ALL THE BLOODY time and being assigned 10-12 of the above patients per nurse... to do ALL care for (i.e. bathing/clothing/feeding/toileting/turning/ambulating... on top of your nursing assessments and medication administration) all by yourself with no PWS/CNA to assist -- WE DO EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING (ex. housekeeping, putting away their clothes, etc...)! There is very little I like about LTC and gerontology.

So my QUESTION is this: Do any freaking jobs exist where a sad RPN like me can have a reasonable nurse-to-patient ratio/ assignment size of patients (with even moderately semi-autonomous) patients? Am I reaching for the stars here? Am I living in LaLa land? I would just like to have one nursing job were I don't feel like a battered and abused indentured slave to the miserable, angry, cranky, violent elderly patients. If you know of any, please PM me the job posting.

I had a short-term contact job at a family practice that I loved, but those jobs are hard to come by. All the ADs I see are for LTC and nursing homes... the thought of having to work in those types of environments anymore makes me so upset I'd rather slit my wrists.

DO any jobs other than gerontology exist for RPNs? I feel like I definitely drank the Kool-Aid when my nursing instructors encouraged us about the proposed "career flexibility".

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Do any freaking jobs exist where a sad RPN like me can have a reasonable nurse-to-patient ratio/ assignment size of patients (with even moderately semi-autonomous) patients?

Since you describe yourself as an RPN, I assume you are in Canada. The majority of respondents will be in the States unless you post your queries in the Canadian forum.

Good luck to you.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

I'm in the US, so take with a grain of salt. I work at a free standing endoscopy clinic. We do have LPNs at my facility. You might enjoy that. It's very busy and pretty exhausting, but in a totally different way thanyou've described. No ADLs and minimum need for cleaning up patients.

[mago8388]

Have you tried pediatric home care. Yes you do have to do all their care but the patients are little kids usually weighing less than 50lp. I did it for a while as shift work. You go to your patient home and stay the whole 8hr. It can be boring sometimes tbh and you usually have to sit and wait for the next time the patient needs meds, a feeding, diaper change, sectioning etc but the money was OK.